Why Guy Fieri Never Travels Without His Corn Nuts

We spoke to the mayor of FlavorTown about how he loves to travel (via RV, natch), what he packs in his carry-on, and how he kills a hangover.

Guy Fieri gets around. The sunglass-adorned face of the Food Network has been traversing the United States nonstop for more than a decade, sussing our great nation’s most bomb-dot-com tasty food. His endless adventures to Flavortown make him one of the most well-traveled people we know, so we talked to the man who invented Trashcan Nachos about his life on the road from his affinity for boutique hotels to his 600-horsepower monster RV.

GQ: Do you pack food with you when you travel?Fieri: Yeah, I don’t like eating on the plane so I try to pack a variety of things: beef jerky, almonds, Corn Nuts, those are usually some of my staples. It just depends—if I have time to make a sandwich, I’ll find a sushi joint for a seaweed salad. Something light. Whenever I’m flying I eat light. I stay ready because by the time I’m landing I’m off and running.

Why don’t you like to eat airplane food?
Is that really a true question? [laughs] I have to be careful because we’ve come a long way but it’s just not—I can’t say that I never have. We get so few opportunities to eat in this lifetime. All of them should be treated with as much consideration as possible. If you go and waste it on something that’s cooked and heated and held five hours before I’m getting it, it's not necessarily my idea of what I want to do. Whenever I have a choice, I stop and get my food, predetermine what I’m going to do. I’d rather eat really good food lukewarm than mediocre food piping hot.

Outside of the Corn Nuts, do you have other travel essentials?
I have really good headphones. I travel with my computer and my iPad. I always have Emergen-C. What else do I have? Unfortunately I have succumbed to the reading glasses. [laughs] That’s really about it. I make sure I have everything I need. We move really hot and fast on my team, so we don’t have a lot of time for stopping. If you need some Asprin, Mucinex, a couple DayQuil—I’ve got to be ready for war.

Do you have a plane-vs-car preference?
It’s primarily airplanes. Back in the day, when we first started Triple D [Ed note: That's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives for the uninitiated] eleven or twelve years ago, we would shoot one location, jump in the van with the whole team, we did a lot of that kind of stuff. Now the schedule and the way things are, we have to make it happen, captain.

What’s your dream road trip car?
I don’t know if I’d call it a car. We have this big RV that’s called a Renegade that’s 47 feet long. It’s built on a freight-liner truck, a semi-truck. I had to go get my commercial truck drivers license to drive it, that’s how big it is. Air brakes, air ride suspension and the whole thing. That is one of my favorite things to drive. We drove cross country from here in Santa Rosa where we live to Miami in this thing—5,000 miles plus. It was awesome to have your house and your car in the same thing. Other than that, I’m a big fan of Corvettes. I love jumping in my Corvette for a tour. Can’t bring a lot of luggage, can’t bring a lot of people. It depends on the voyage, it depends on the people, and it depends on the timeline. There are a lot of variables, but I’m a big car guy so there’s a wide range of what I like to take.

When you’re not working, what are some of your favorite vacation destinations?
Love to go to any of the islands. Love being around water. I just love water. Of course going to our cabin—we have a cabin on the water in a little area in Northern California. Really enjoy Tahoe, enjoy the mountains, I’m an outdoors person. Anywhere where we’ve got the great outdoors is fun. I don’t like it super cold and I don’t like it super hot. If I do have a city environment that I’m going to, one of my favorite cities, probably my first favorite city is Vegas. I love Vegas. I went to college in Vegas. Our son went to school in Vegas. I’ve got my restaurants in Vegas. Boston is another one of my favorite cities. Just being around the water, going down to the Cape. Going to Long Beach. Anywhere on the east, anywhere on the west, anywhere in the south.

Let's talk islands. Which ones are your favorites?
I want to do Tahiti and I want to do the Philippines—I want to do it all but so far when I say islands I mean Hawaii. We did Oahu forever and shot Triple D there. Loved it. Then we said we’d go to Maui. I’d been to Maui when I was younger and wasn’t that excited about it, but I just realized how bit it was and was in the wrong part of the island. I was in too much of a tourist area and I don’t like the tourist stuff. Then we found some other places and we love Maui. We’ve never been to the Big Island before, so this year the family is going there and we’re excited for that. You know what it is, I love culture. I didn’t even say Mexico—Mexico is one of my favorite places. But I love culture. I love being around people and their environments and the food and the style and the energy and the music—all of the aspects.

How do you navigate a night out in a city?
There’s no rhyme or reason. I don’t have a schedule of what where and why, but it usually involves talking to my buddies. I've got somebody that’s a friend that knows something of a guy that has something. I love music, big music fan. Music is a big thing. Getting back to that thing about food—I’m in a city for two days. I want to make sure that every meal I get is going to be the best one I can have. That’s about it. Depending on how many people and what the situation is, what the next day is, there’s always a barometer on the program depending on what the next morning is. A lot of time there’s work the next morning so we can’t be out too late or get too crazy.

In the case that things did get too crazy, do you have any go-to hangover cures?
Ohhhhhhh, sleep? [laughs] Sleep and Gatorade.

Do you have favorite hotels in the world?
Every city has their funky little boutique one-off, and I love those. But I’m a Kimpton fan, a Fairmont fan, the Cromwell in Vegas is where I stay. Cromwell’s nice—it’s small, it’s petite, I know everybody there, it’s not far from my restaurant, it’s easy. We keep an inventory of where we’ve been and where we’re going. Like, we’re getting ready to shoot in Seattle in a couple weeks and we haven’t been there for a while. I love great hotels and I love, for being a guy who travels as much as I do, we really pay attention to where we’re at. I just stayed in Oakland the other day even though it was close to home but traffic was crazy so we stayed at the Fairmont, the big white hotel in Oakland, it’s called the Claremont. Oh my gosh what a beautiful hotel, and nice people. It means a lot. I’m a guy from the service industry, so I really appreciate great service and hospitality and attention to detail. That’s the kind of place I like to stay in. I think the industry as a whole is doing a really great job.